Full disclosure: this is a rewrite of the original posting, as I - fool of a Took that I am - managed to close the browser without saving the first version. Ah, well.

First things first. There’s a new blog post by me over at Crime Cymru; the post discusses using Welsh locations in fiction a little, and includes a tiny bit of a tease about a forthcoming Dan Matlock book following on from East of England.

Second, the crowdfunding for an East of England sequel - Canine Jubilee - continues over at Unbound Publishing. Please consider supporting the project if you can! In all fairness it’s going a little slower than East of England’s crowdfunding did, though that’s only to be expected. We’ll get there, one way or another. This is the last time I’ll crowdfund a book, so make the most of that alluring opportunity.

Third, blogging over at Benches of Llangollen is on hiatus until the beginning of June. Day-jobbery is taking up all the time and brain space at present, but there’ll be public seating shenanigans galore on a weekly basis from the first Tuesday in June onwards. Oh, and Benches of Louth is eminently available if you want a copy; those local to Louth in Lincolnshire should find paperback stock in at Mark Merrifield’s Off The Beaten Tracks record store.

Fourth, micro-blogging on my ongoing reading and movie-watching continues at 255BookReview and 255Review respectively. Note that all the book reviews are mine, but only the movie reviews tagged with my name (that’s most of ‘em, to be fair) are mine, as this site is a collaborative effort.

Fifth, East of England is on offer on Kindle/ebook for 99p or thereabouts pretty much everywhere that sells electronic books, so avail yourself of bargainage while you can. The cheapest paperback option that I’m aware of is over at BooksEtc, where it’s less than £6 including delivery. The book’s been generally well-received, which is gratifying; if you’re able to leave a review or a star rating on the likes of Goodreads or at your book-buying site of choice, then that’d be most appreciated too!

Sixth, and slightly teasingly, there’ll be another Dan Matlock book sooner rather than later. This’ll fit between East of England and the crowdfunding Canine Jubilee and will hopefully fill the time nicely while the latter’s funding. I’ll say more about this in a few weeks’ time, but the intention is to deliver a novella-length Dan Matlock story that’ll be available towards the end of the year. In all probability this’ll be a self-publishing effort via Amazon. It’s got the working title Piece of Work.

Over the last two weeks, East of England’s been on a bit of a blog tour, and so it only makes sense to both thank all of those involved and to round up the various posts and reviews into a single posting. As you might imagine, it’s not easy for plucky underdogs like me to get reviews in the press, so every little helps, and that’s where the dedication of book bloggers comes into play.

So, thanks first and foremost both to my publishers Unbound and to book tour organiser extraordinaire Anne Cater. Thanks to each of the bloggers who took part too! In no particular order:

Cheryl MM - who said that East of England is “a clever tongue in cheek nod to the old gangster regimes, but with a small countryside flair to it”.

The crowdfunding for Canine Jubilee, the sequel to my recent noir thriller East of England, is now up and running.

If anyone's interested in the book, then there's an offer code ENDOFFEB10 that'll get you 10% off, plus if you've got a copy of East of England, there's a further offer code that gives you £5 off this book. Go for it! Here’s a short video that explains a little more:

More details about the new book, including how to pledge to the project, can be found here.

Here’s the text of an update I posted over on Unbound’s site for East of England, though it makes sense to have it copied here too.

East of England has been out for a fortnight now, and most folk seem to like it, which is gratifying. If you've been able to leave a review already then thanks very much! If you haven't (or plain haven't got around to reading the book yet), then please consider leaving your thoughts - however brief - on Amazon, on Goodreads, and/or elsewhere on social media. For smaller publishers like Unbound, and for little fish in the writing pond like me, these things really matter, and can help get word of the book out to wider potential readerships.

The publishers have organised a blog tour - basically a sequenced run of interviews, extracts and reviews from crime fiction-oriented book bloggers - which starts tomorrow (Monday 11th Feb, as I'm writing this up on Sunday morning). I'll do what I can to promote this through the ten day run of this tour, but again, anything you can do support-wise (as well as reading what the different bloggers have got to say on the book) is both valuable and appreciated.

East of England blog tour details

Third, those who've read East of England will have seen (and maybe even read) the opening pages of a continuation novel - the second in a potential series - titled Canine Jubilee. That book again will be crowdfunded via Unbound, and there'll be some stuff coming out about that hopefully in the next few days.

Fourth and finally, check out my brother Max's page for Field Notes - also being crowdfunded by Unbound - and consider backing the book. Details on that are here.